Mother's Day 2021

Mother's Day is a holiday celebrated annually as a tribute to all mothers and
motherhood. It is celebrated on various dates in many parts of the world.
Although the origins of the holiday date back to the times of the ancient
Greeks and Romans, the modern form of the celebration of Mother's Day in the
United States began in the early 20th century.

Modern history

It was first celebrated in 1908 in
Grafton, West Virginia, when
Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother Ann Reeves Jarvis who, in turn, many
years earlier had founded Mothers' Day Work Clubs in five cities.
Anna Jarvis began a campaign to make the Mother's Day a national holiday and she
succeeded in 1914 when the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May
a Mother's Day.

Mother's Day around the world

Nowadays Mother's Day (or a similar event) is celebrated in more than 150
countries around the world, although at different dates. Many countries,
including the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and many European countries,
celebrate Mother's Day on second Sunday of May. On the other hand, in many
African countries it is celebrated on 21 March. To summarize, most of the
Mother's Day dates around the world fall in May or in March.

Interesting facts about Mother's Day

Anna Jarvis (woman who founded Mother's Day) believed it became too commercialized by 1920s and fought to have it abolished [1].

In the USA, Mother's Day is one of the biggest holidays for phone calls, and Father's Day is the busiest day for collect (reverse charge) calls [2].

Typically, 30% less is spend on Father's Day gifts than on Mother's Day gifts [3].

Mother's Day is the most popular day of the year to dine out in the United States with almost 40% of consumers doing so [4]. Accordingly, it is also the busiest day of the year for KFC [5].

Mother of John and Clarence Anglin, 2 of the 3 men who ever escaped from Alcatraz, received flowers anonymously every Mother's Day until her death in 1978. The interesting thing is her sons were officially reported to have drowned in San Francisco Bay while escaping in 1962 [6].